


Crystalline Waters

by StephirothWasTaken



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - No Prophecy (Final Fantasy XV), Gen, MerMay2020, Mermaid Gladio, Mermaids, No Scourge, No daemons, Not much of a plot, because I'm just winging this thing, mermaid Noctis, mermaid ignis, more tags will probably be added later, normal human prompto, terrible title
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23954497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephirothWasTaken/pseuds/StephirothWasTaken
Summary: Merboy Noctis embarks on a pilgrimage to strengthen his magic and his people's relationship with the land-dwellers.But all he really cares about are comics and video games (and his new friend Prompto).
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia
Comments: 18
Kudos: 33





	1. Celebration

**Author's Note:**

> Considering how much time I've been spending playing through Final Fantasy VII Remake (and the soundtrack is indescribably amazing), it's a minor miracle that I've managed to post this on the day that I wanted to post this.
> 
> I tried to make our merboys' eyes more "realistic" in this. It doesn't make sense to me that they would have normal human eyes under the water (not that anything about magical merboys needs to make sense but indulge me here).
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Noctis sighed as someone’s consciousness brushed against his, a light pressure against the back of his skull. Worry poured into their mental link.

“ _Noct_ ,” came the echoey voice of his advisor into his head, “ _what on Eos are you doing?_ ”

“Looking for privacy,” Noctis muttered aloud so Ignis could not hear him.

He had gone to the land-dweller studies room, the only place in the Citadel engineers had rigged to not only hold a pocket of air but have a constant flow of oxygen pumped into it. There were also tubs filled with seawater to keep merfolk from drying out while they read texts for hours and hours a day.

One of his great-great-many-generations-ago-grandfathers had commissioned it as a place to study cultures that would be otherwise inaccessible to merfolk. It was a place to learn about land-dweller history, geography, and wildlife, but if it was up to Noctis, the place would be full of nothing but comics and movies.

As he heard the squeak of the old airlock, Noctis closed the comic book in his webbed hands, and he slid it under the heavy picture book, which he opened to a random page. A bulette illustration stared up at him. He slipped his hands beneath the water in his tub.

The door opened with a screech, and a wet mop of dark blond hair popped out of the hole. The merman rested one arm on the floor, and he used his other hand to brush his hair out of the way, revealing black eyes set in a face with smatterings of pale green scales. He blinked as his pupils reduced, turning into human green eyes more appropriate for the air and brighter lighting.

“Hey, Ignis,” Noctis spoke aloud.

Ignis gave Noctis a cutting look, annoyance flowing into their magical bond.

“You’re up here reading comics instead of attending your farewell party with your father,” he scolded, also aloud because it was a rule to only speak aloud in the Land-Dweller study.

“No, I’m studying Lucian wildlife for my pilgrimage,” Noctis said, motioning toward the bulette illustration before him.

Pilgrimages were a royal privilege that most merfolk would never experience. It was a rite of passage to help the six Gods determine if they were worthy of the magic the Hexathon had gifted to them through the Crystal, a giant magical rock in the middle of the ocean. The sea goddess Leviathan would transform them into land-dwellers so they could live and roam the land as they pleased, and no other merperson could do the same, with some rare exceptions.

“Noct, please, I didn’t meet you just yesterday,” Ignis huffed. “You’re reading comics and hiding from councilmen and your dutiful subjects. I’ve never known you to study for fun.”

Noctis lifted a shoulder in a shrug. His long black hair slipped off his shoulder with the movement, landing in the water. He was sure it had been a frizzy mess while it had been dry, but he did not have the same level of pride in his appearance that Ignis had.

“I already had a nice breakfast with Dad. I don’t see why I have to dance with a bunch of old people, too.”

Ignis _tsk_ ed. He heaved himself out of the hole, his gold and green tail glittering in the light, and he glared at Noctis.

“Those ‘old people’ are an important part of your future. They help govern this city and protect it, and they deserve more respect than that.”

Noctis could have pointed out that it was his father, the King of Insomnia, who protected the merfolk with his Gods-granted powers, but Ignis would just scold him again. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, and he braced his arms against the side of the tub as he slipped his head under the water, feeling his gills flare as they filtered oxygen from the liquid.

Ignis’s irritation bubbled through their mental link like magma bubbling from beneath the planet’s crust, and when he spoke through that link, it was loud and piercing:

“ _Noctis, get out of that tub right now. We’re going to the Royal Hall or else I will burn that comic you hid under that textbook. Do you understand me?_ ”

The prince burst out of the tub then, flailing his arms about, uncaring if he ruined the textbook next to him. It had taken him years to convince his father to agree to purchase an entire series of comics for him and bring them into the study, and he quite enjoyed having them around, even if everyone else insisted they were a waste of his time.

Noctis turned his wide-eyed gaze to Ignis, who smirked at him. He huffed, but he heaved himself out of the tub. His black and blue tail slapping the floor when he landed. There was a twinge of pain in his back, a minor flare-up of his old injury after sitting so long in the tub.

“Fine, I’ll go.”

“Ah,” Ignis began, “your father will be pleased.”

His father was the actual reason he would go. Ignis could threaten to burn all of his comics, but the disappointment that would be on his father’s face was the greater motivator, even if he would never admit to it aloud. The King might have been aloof to individual problems, including his own son’s, but he was a kind man, one who took on his tough duties without complaint.

Noctis paused outside the airlock, waiting for his human sapphire blue eyes to shift to marine mammal eyes, pupils expanding until they were black. Glowing algae growing along the walls illuminated the coral and metal halls of the Citadel. Everything was cleaner than usual, and he realized how hard the staff had been working to prepare the Royal Hall for the party.

Amusement flowed through his connection to Ignis, and Noctis’s cheeks heated.

“ _Is that guilt I sense from you?_ ” Ignis asked.

“ _Shut up._ ”

As they moved through the Citadel’s halls, Noctis felt pressure in the back of his skull that was different from his connection to Ignis. It was stronger and more invasive, and it set his nerves on fire like everyone in Insomnia were all scrambling to speak to him at once. He knew it was just his connection to the Crystal that amplified his connection to others, but no matter how many times he experienced it, he was always overwhelmed.

Just before they reached the black and gold-detailed entrance leading into the Royal Hall, a huge merman hovered near the doors, amber and rust-red tail swaying to keep himself afloat. He had pulled back his dark brown hair into a long braid, and the color of the algae light made the scar over his eye blend into his tanned skin. An enormous bird of prey tattoo covered most of his torso.

“ _It’s about time you showed up, princess,_ ” the merman said, full lips spreading into a smirk. “ _Needed some beauty sleep?_ ”

Noctis sent a glare toward the merman, but he only grinned wider.

“ _Would you mind escorting Noctis to His Majesty, Gladio?_ ” Ignis asked the tattooed merman.

“ _Yeah, it’s my job,_ ” Gladio said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “ _Let’s go, Princess._ ”

Noctis huffed at the nickname, but he followed the larger man to the door.

Gladio was Noctis’s sworn Shield, a title given to only those in the Amicitia bloodline, and they were also connected to the Crystal, though iy was not as strong of a connection. He was one of the rare few mermen who had ever been outside the safety of Insomnia, and that was only to get his tattoo and allow his skin to heal before re-entering the ocean. When Noctis would leave on his pilgrimage, he would leave once again to protect the prince.

The Royal Hall was a vast space decorated with ancient statues, precious metals, and various seashells. It was full of merfolk adorned with various jewelry. He felt their excitement as they all noticed him entering, and he wished he could turn and swim back to the study to escape not only their thoughts but their gazes, especially as many of them all wished him a happy birthday and a safe pilgrimage.

It made his skin itch, but his father’s amusement was the strongest emotion of all.

Noctis focused on it to help him find the strength to force a calm look on his face and follow Gladio through the parting crowd of merfolk to the throne where his father sat.

Regis had a long, flowing beard that he had tamed into a braid. His tail looked similar to Noctis’s, but instead of hints of sapphire, there were emeralds and jades. Some black had faded to silver to match the grays in his hair.

There was a paleness to his cheeks that Noctis hated seeing. He knew it resulted from spending the last thirty years guiding the powerful magic of the Crystal into the magical bubble protecting their city, and he would never get to rest until Noctis became king himself in a few decades—maybe sooner, not that Noctis wanted to think about it.

“ _Ah, there you are, my son,_ ” Regis’s voice cut through the emotions of the merfolk surrounding them.

Noctis wanted to grab his father into a hug, but as he felt the glare of not only his father’s Shield but his other bodyguard Cor Leonis, stern eyes boring into him as they pleaded with him to behave himself in front of so many people, he only crossed his arms over his chest before taking his father’s hand and kissing the back of it.

“ _I apologize for being late, Father,_ ” Noctis said. “ _I lost track of time._ ”

The amusement flowed through him, letting him know that his father knew the truth.

“ _It’s no matter, Noctis,_ ” Regis said. “ _I’m pleased to have you join me in time for dinner._ ”

Cor Leonis left for a moment to grab a smaller chair, which he placed next to Regis’s throne. Noctis thanked him, and he sat in it. He sighed as he watched the merfolk swimming around each other, their mirth flowing through him in waves again, but they never overpowered the warmth of his father’s love.

Throughout the years, Noctis had spent too much time away from his father, who was busy ruling over his people and protecting them, but the love he always felt from his father let him know that he was still loved—more than the people he ruled over.

It was his father's love that helped him sit through dinner, sit through the time of everyone giving him gifts in the form of jewelry and even some land-dweller coins that had floated to the bottom of the ocean. Noctis knew his face betrayed his discomfort with them, but he found his chest warm at the more intricate gifts, the ones that had taken quite some time to make. It baffled him that someone would spend so much time making something for a stranger, someone who rarely showed his face to the public.

The only person he danced with was Gladio’s little sister, Iris. Her crush on him was clear through their mental link, but there was also disappointment that he viewed her as a friend, a little sister. Still, she was happy to have a moment with him to herself, and if she had not been so kind, Noctis would have found it annoying.

It was several hours before the event was over. Regis gave a brief speech thanking everyone who had helped organize the event and thanking everyone for attending the celebration and giving gifts to the prince.

Noctis felt relieved as the merfolk left the Royal Hall, their emotions fading into the distance, and bone-deep exhaustion overcame him, leaving his eyelids feeling heavy. He sagged against his chair. His head was pounding, which he had not noticed until he had silence.

A heavy hand settled on Noctis’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze, and he looked up, finding Gladio hovering over him with a smile.

“ _You did great today,_ ” he said.

Noctis only nodded, afraid of how he would sound to his Shield with him being so tired. Gladio nodded, and he swam to his father, the King’s Shield, across the room.

Regis turned to him, love pouring into their connection again, and he gave Noctis a soft look.

“ _I know how exhausting crowds can be for you, my son,_ ” he said, and he patted Noctis’s hand. “ _I’m very proud of you._ ”

Noctis shook his head, the cold of shame flowing through him. He recalled a time when he had been small, and a deep-sea creature had found its way into Insomnia and had tried to tear him in half by the time adults had dispatched the beast. While he was grateful to have survived the attack, he would never forget feeling so helpless, so weak as the damage to his spine had distorted his connection to the Crystal, making it difficult for him to control magic.

Regis’s hand brushed against Noctis’s cheek, that love flowing even more powerfully between them.

“ _You’re strong, Noctis,_ ” he said. “ _Far stronger than you give yourself credit for. It reminds me so much of your mother, the way you try so hard to be good for your people and never feel you’re doing well enough for them. She would be so proud of you, too, Noctis._ ”

That shame twisted into guilt in his chest, but Regis gave him no time to dwell on it as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of Noctis’s head.

“ _You have an exciting day ahead of you tomorrow,_ ” Regis reminded him. “ _Please get some rest. You more than deserve it._ ”

Noctis opened his mouth to protest, a habit he had developed as a child to get as much time with his father as possible, but then he caught a flash of gold and green scales out of the corner of his eye. He pressed his mouth shut, and he frowned at Ignis, who smiled and nodded at him.

“ _Ah, Ignis,_ ” Regis said.

“ _Your Majesty,_ Ignis said, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “ _Might I take His Highness off your hands?_ ”

“ _I was just telling Noctis to rest. He looks exhausted._ ”

Ignis’s own brand of love poured through his connection to Noctis. It was not as intense as Regis’s fatherly love, but it was there, comforting and familiar, bringing with it memories of them huddling together in the study to read some fantastic land-dweller tales.

“ _He does indeed,_ ” Ignis said, giving Noctis a slight smile. “ _To your chambers then, Your Highness?_ ”

If Noctis had been in the Land-Dweller study, he would have rolled his eyes and sighed, but instead, he nodded. He turned to his father, and he wrapped his arms around him in a hug.

“ _Good night, Dad,_ ” he said.

“ _Good night, my son. Sleep well._ ”

Noctis gave his father a gentle squeeze before he parted. Regis smiled at him before Noctis turned to follow Ignis to his chambers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a rushed mess, I know, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway (plus, I do like going back and editing stuff, even if it takes me forever to do it).
> 
> I'm still playing Final Fantasy VII Remake (I'm trying my hand at hard mode, which I might give up on halfway through [Future Steph came back t say she had a blast playing through hard mode]). Updates for this will be pretty inconsistent, but I'm determined to write something for all of the prompts within the next couple of months.
> 
> The prompt "Warrior" is up next, but I don't think I'll be keeping all the prompts in order.


	2. Warrior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for how long I waited to write this part, and playing FF7R for a third time is only partially to blame for it. For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on writing more in a day, and it's my goal to include this story in my writing sessions.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Warning: There is some blood described at the end of this. It's not much, but I figured I would mention it, anyway, because the game goes out of its way not to have blood in it regardless of whether that makes sense or not.

Noctis’s heart thrummed in his chest as he watched the massive Sea Goddess Leviathan, the Hydraean.

Cor had woken up Noctis and his retinue early that morning to begin his pilgrimage, and it was his duty to escort the prince and his retinue to Leviathan. The prince was grateful for his comforting presence, but the older man’s constant questions had annoyed him.

“ _Are you sure you’re ready, Your Highness? Do you remember what to do, Your Highness? Mind your manners around Leviathan, Your Highness._ ”

There was nothing in his life he wanted more than to experience the land-dwellers’ world. Ever since he had gotten his hands on his first comic, it had been all he could think about, and while his lessons were tedious, he had gone through all the books about their technology and wildlife more than he could count.

Yes, he had been _dying_ to meet the Hydraean, who would temporarily turn him into a land-dweller so he could explore that fascinating world himself, but he had not realized that Cor might have been _nervous_ —yes, one of the most powerful men in the ocean—to meet with Her again after fighting Her alongside King Regis thirty years ago.

Leviathan dwelled in an underwater cave. She slept in it as She waited for either the Lucian royalty to approach Her or some great disaster to strike somewhere in the world, and even curled up around Herself, She was larger than any whale he had ever seen. Her scales in the murky water were a brilliant sapphire blue that gave a faint, unearthly glow. Her dorsal fins lay flat against Her serpentine body. Noctis could feel Her powerful energy as intense tingles crawled up his skin.

Noctis glanced at Cor, his long-time mentor. He was a large Merman, not quite as large as Gladio, but his skills as a fighter more than made up for any discrepancies in power between him and his opponents. Old pink scars marred his pale blue tail, and the prince wondered how many of those scars had appeared because of the Trial against Leviathan.

“ _She’s huge_ “ was all Noctis could think to say about the Sea Goddess.

Cor turned to Noctis with a smirk.

“ _She is_ ,” he agreed. “ _It’s time to wake Her, Your Highness. She already knows we’re here, so She’ll kill us if we back away now_.”

Noctis puffed up his chest, earning another smirk from the Marshal.

“ _I’m not backing away_.”

“ _Good. Go on before she catches you by surprise_.”

Noctis nodded to Cor, and he turned to look at Gladio and Ignis behind him. They would go through the same transformation as him, as his chosen Advisor and Shield, and even though he would not be joining them on their pilgrimage, Cor would as well just in case they got themselves into deep trouble.

“ _We’ll be right behind you, Noct_ ,” Ignis assured him.

“ _You can beat the hell out of whatever that old lizard sends at you_ ,” Gladio growled.

Noctis took a moment to close his eyes, feel the subtle movement of water as his gills collected much needed oxygen, and when he opened his eyes, he summoned the Trident of the Oracle with a flash of blue light. He looked at the ancient weapon, an old relic from a long dead royal family that had sacrificed themselves centuries ago to protect Eos.

 _“Let’s go_ ,” he said, and he swam toward the ancient Astral.

Leviathan’s power felt like a great pressure on his body as he drew closer to Her, and he could feel through his bond with the other three men that they felt it, too. Their anxiety amplified his as he swam up to Her elongated snout. She was even more terrifying up close. A single eye must have been as big as Noctis was, but he was reluctant to get close enough to make a proper comparison.

Noctis held the Trident in front of him with both hands, and he closed his eyes as he focused on the warm magical energy within himself. It was like the magic he felt from the Hydraean, but Hers felt like anger while his was comforting, familiar. He pulled his magic out of himself, expanding it to push Hers back, and he felt the pressure shift.

“ **Who dares wake the Hydraean from her slumber?** “ Leviathan boomed into his head, causing spikes of stabbing pain against his skull. 

“ _The prince of Lucis asks You to begin his Trial_.”

Leviathan’s magic tightened around him, giving him more sharp pains in his head, but he continued pushing his magic against Hers. There was no comforting presence from his friends, and he realized the Sea Goddess was cutting him off from them.

“ **I can smell your fear, little prince. You are not ready for this trial.** ”

Noctis’s studies had prepared him for this. It was common, practically a ritual, for the Hydraean to deny the Lucis Caelums a trial the first time they asked. He opened his eyes, and a moment later, her massive eye opened, revealing a green iris with slitted pupils. There was a sudden swishing sound, but he did not want to lose focus by looking for the source.

“ _I have trained my entire life alongside the greatest warriors of Lucis, and I have companions who will help me get through anything_.”

The green eye rolled in its socket to look at the people behind Noctis.

“ **A small group of companions**.”

Noctis felt a pang at that. His father had gotten onto him several times about how little he spent among his people, and Regis had far more friends than Noctis, more than the people who were duty-bound to him.

“ _I trust them more than anyone else in Eos_ ,” Noctis said, straightening his spine as a show of courage to the Astral.

Noctis could have sworn he felt amusement coming from Leviathan, but the emotion disappeared as soon as he felt it. Leviathan lifted Her head, dragging along Noctis in her wake, and he spotted a vague dark shape swimming toward him from below. He heard a long, loud groan from the creature as it sped toward him, and he shifted his stance, preparing to use the Trident against the creature.

“ _Noct!_ ” Ignis cried.

It was huge, not as big as Leviathan, but far larger than himself and his retinue combined. As it swam closer to them, it caught the light from the Hydraean, allowing Noctis to see it was a whale with a massive horn protruding from its head. The creature was Bismarck, a lesser god of the sea.

Bismarck aimed its horn toward Noctis’s torso, and the Prince spiraled away, swinging the Trident to hit its side. It was difficult to miss such a massive target, but the strike made no blood appear in the water. Noctis felt the fear from his companions and from Cor, and he took that fear as their signal that they wanted him to stand strong against this creature.

“ **Defeat my child, little prince** ,” Leviathan boomed in his head, causing another spike of pain, “ **and you shall have my Blessing**.”

Noctis nodded, and he spun toward Bismarck as it turned in the water to face him again. He aimed the Trident underneath the god, and with the help of magic, he threw the Trident through the water. His body shifted with an explosion of blue light, and he warped under Bismarck. Looking at its underbelly, he threw the Trident upward, but it swam faster, striking him with its tail.

The strike made Noctis spin away from the whale, and he pulled the Trident tighter to himself to keep it from puncturing anything by accident. When he slowed, Bismarck charged for him again, and he readied the Trident for another warp strike, aiming for the ocean below it again. As he warped upward, Bismarck sped up, but Noctis sent a charge of lightning through his Trident, grateful for his immunity to his own magic as he watched electricity arc through the ocean, spidering in random directions until it struck its swishing tail.

Bismarck gave painful groans as Noctis sent a second torrent of electricity through it, making it convulse. He warped to Bismarck as it struggled against his magic, and he sank his Trident into its blubbery flesh, a cloud of blood seeping from the wound. Noctis felt guilty as the coppery fluid went into his gills, but he knew Leviathan had healing properties that would save him. It was Her influence on the Crystal that gave him a similar ability.

Noctis got several stabs into Bismarck before the lesser god swished its tail and out of the prince’s reach. As it turned, instead of charging toward him, it opened its mouth and sent a current of magically charged water toward him, sending him spinning away again.

“ _Aim for the horn, Noct!_ ” Ignis instructed.

“ _Got it!_ ”

Noctis began the dance again: he warped beneath Bismarck, warped up, and sent electricity through the Trident, but it missed as the whale blew him away again. All he could do was try again and again, his arms screaming with pain at the effort, until he got two currents into Bismarck again, stunning the god, and he warped near its horn this time. He banished the Trident back into the Armiger, the pocket dimension that held his weapons, and he summoned a sword instead, one with wings depicted on the hilt. The prince hacked at the horn, pieces of it breaking and floating away with each hit.

Before he could get even a quarter of the way through, Bismarck thrashed, and he blew Noctis away again. The Lucian prince continued his strategy, finding himself becoming more and more exhausted as he went on. It went on so long that, when the horn shattered and broke away from Bismarck, he did not register what he had done until the whale groaned in pain and his companions sent relief into his head.

“ **You have completed the trial** ,” Leviathan boomed. “ **You have earned my blessing, as all of your ancestors before you have done.** ”

Bismarck's still body glowed bright green, and Noctis watched as the hole in the side of its body healed and the broken horn came back together. Once whole again, the whale let out another long, low groan, and it swam away from them, likely going back to the ocean waters of Altissia, where he preferred to live.

Noctis felt Gladio’s excitement through their bond as the larger merman wrapped his arms around Noctis and spun him around. It made the prince feel light-headed.

“ _Whoa!_ ” Noctis complained. “ _Slow down there, buddy!_ ”

“ _Sorry! Couldn’t help myself, Princess._ ”

Noctis felt the immense pressure around him again. It had eased without him realizing it while he had fought with Bismarck, but now it was back tenfold. He looked at Leviathan. She uncurled Herself, and She swam toward them. His heart picked up speed again as he took in the length of Her. Then, She turned, swimming in a massive circle that drew the four mermen together from the force of it.

The magical pressure around him grew stronger and stronger the more She swam in a circle around them, and Her scales glowed brighter and brighter until he had to squeeze his eyes shut. His head felt like someone had smacked him in the head with an axe. It hurt, and he could taste his blood in the water.

“ **Go forth on your pilgrimage, child,** Leviathan boomed. “ **Learn much. Come back to me wise, and earn my blessing as the next King of Insomnia.** ”

Noctis’s entire world went dark and still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conversation between Noctis and Leviathan is a little lame, I know.
> 
> The next prompt is "sunset." Hopefully it won't take me another two months to finish it.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this! Kudos and comments (whether praise or complaints) are much appreciated and highly motivating!


	3. Sunset

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost completely forgot to post this today, but finally, I've remembered.

“Your Highness?”

Someone patted Noctis on the cheek, and he jumped into wakefulness. His back and head ached, but such pains were familiar to him. With a sigh, he rolled onto his side, swatting at whoever had touched him.

“I’m sleeping,” he said.

There was a sigh of relief from someone—Ignis, he thought.

“Princess, get up,” Gladio said. “We need to get moving.”

Something hard nudged against Noctis’s tail—

No, that felt different. _He_ felt different.

Noctis’s eyes snapped open. He stared at the sand beneath him and then the orange and red sky and the _mountains_ above him. With a gasp, he pushed himself upright, ignoring the twinge of pain in his back, and he looked at himself—his _legs_ , his new body.

“Whoa!” Noctis gasped.

“Yeah, if you think it’s weird now,” Gladio said, “wait ‘til you walk around.”

Noctis turned toward his Shield’s voice. It was no surprise that he towered over him so much, but the tanned skin was strange, considering how much time both of them spent deep underwater. A stark naked Ignis held onto Gladio’s arm, and his legs shook as the two of them walked along the sandy path. His long dark blond hair was a frizzy mess about his head even while braided, but he was just as pale as Noctis.

“I can confirm,” Ignis said, voice strained, “it’s quite difficult.”

A tap on Noctis’s shoulder startled him, and he turned to find Cor hovering over him. The older man wore black pants and a matching shirt. His skin was also a few shades darker than it should have been. He extended a hand toward Noctis.

“Are you ready to give it a try?”

Noctis looked at Ignis again, watched as the poor merman struggled to get his legs to move correctly.

“How come and you Gladio aren’t having so much trouble?” he asked.

“We already went through this, remember?” Cor reminded him. “I went with your father, and Gladio needed to get his tattoo.”

Noctis had always hated that Gladio had gotten to explore land before he had, but it was silly to feel such petty jealousy now when he got to explore it himself. He nodded, and he held out his hand toward Cor. The older man took it and hauled him to his feet, and he looped an arm around Noctis when his knees buckled.

“Uh, this isn’t as intuitive as it looks,” Noctis said.

“You’ll get used to it. You just have to move your legs separately and shift your weight at the right time.”

Noctis practiced his walking while clinging onto Cor. Ignis got the hang of it first, but then he got frustrated when he had to learn how to put on clothes: black pants, a dark purple cat print shirt with a million buttons, and a black leather suit jacket. He stumbled a few more times in his dress shoes.

“Do you want to cut that hair?” Gladio asked.

Ignis looked at him aghast, and he snapped a hand to his dark blond hair. Noctis stifled a chuckle behind his hand. Merfolk enjoyed their long hair, and Ignis hated to be unfashionable.

“Cut my hair?”

“Yeah, it’ll be a pain in the ass up here, trust me, and it’s not like you can’t grow it back.”

“It’s taken me ten years to get my hair this long!”

Gladio lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“Suit yourself.”

When Noctis could finally walk without Cor holding him up, Noctis put on his own clothes: cargo shorts, a steel gray T-shirt with skulls, and a black jacket with short sleeves. His boots were annoying to lace up, but the rest of his outfit had been easy enough to put on. They made his body feel strangely heavy.

“Are we all ready to go?” Cor asked.

“Yes, sir,” the three young mermen said.

“Good. It’s time you meet someone.”

Cor guided them through the area. They passed a decrepit building. Noctis wanted to explore it, but Cor insisted there was nothing interesting about it. They reached a beach, and there was a rotting dock with a large boat tied to it.

Noctis had seen a few boats when he would sneak up to the surface with Ignis as children, and this one looked rather small compared to those big, rusty ones. This one was new and shiny, just like the pictures he had seen of it from his father's adventures.

“Damn, someone’s taken good care of it,” Gladio said.

“Was this the boat you used, Gladio?” Ignis asked.

“Yeah, the _Royal Vessel_. It’s nice, I guess.”

“Doesn’t compare to swimming, does it?” Cor said.

“No, but it’s a hell of a lot faster.”

They reached the dock, which made ominous creaking sounds as they walked over it. The _Royal Vessel_ might have looked nice, but the dock looked and sounded like it needed repairs. As they drew closer to the boat, they saw an old man sitting on the side of it. He wore a red leather jacket and a baseball cap, and he had something in his mouth—a cigar, if Noctis remembered its name correctly.

Noctis’s heart hammered in his chest. He had never gotten to meet a land-dweller before.

“Hey, Cid!” Cor called, and he raised one hand in a wave.

“‘Bout damn time ya showed up,” the old man complained. “I was ‘bout ta drive off.”

“Sorry about that. You know how long it can take to wake up Caelums.”

Noctis frowned at Cor, but he bit back a complaint about how exhausting the Crystal’s magic was. He did not want to give the old man a bad impression of him on the first day they met.

Then, he reconsidered what Cor had said, and he jogged up to Cor to whisper:

“Wait, did he know my dad?”

“He did. We met him during our trip, and he rode with us for a while. He hasn’t been able to get rid of us ever since.”

When they got close enough, Noctis could read “Hammerhead Service Station” printed onto his cap. He had heard of Hammerhead before, and he wondered what kind of place a “service station” was. Cor hopped onto the boat, and he held out a hand to Cid.

“I don’ need yer damn help,” Cid grumbled even as he took Cor’s hand.

“Boys,” Cor said, chuckling at Cid’s complaints, “this is Cid Sophiar, an old friend, and Cid, this is Ignis Scientia, and Prince Noctis. You’ve already met Gladio.”

“Look just like yer Paw,” Cid said as he squinted at Noctis, “if he had all his dignity kicked outta him.”

Gladio snorted. Noctis glanced at Ignis, whose lips had quirked up in amusement.

“What the hell,” Noctis muttered under his breath.

“He’ll be taking us to the mainland,” Cor continued, “and then, you boys will be free to explore the land as you please.”

 _That_ Noctis could at least be excited for, even if he would rather not travel with the cranky old guy. He stepped onto the boat after Gladio, and Ignis joined them soon after. They turned toward the darkening orange and red sky. From the vantage point on the boat, Noctis could see the sun dipping below the horizon.

It was his first time seeing it above water. Apart from the times he had sneaked up to the surface with Ignis, his father had kept him in the deep underwater city of Insomnia, and he had only seen pictures of sunsets. None of the images had done the real thing any justice. There were so many more colors than he had imagined. An unexpected warmth bloomed in his chest at the sight of it.

“Quite beautiful, isn’t it?” Ignis said.

“Yeah,” Noctis gasped.

The prince felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to find Ignis next to him, smiling as he stared at the horizon.

“Let’s sit down,” Gladio interrupted the moment. “We don’t want you two falling off the boat before we hit the mainland. You can stare at the sky all you want there.”

Noctis absently went to the seats in the middle of the _Royal Vessel_ , Ignis guiding him there while he stared up at the sky. He wanted to memorize that sky so he would never forget it when he returned home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read this and felt like it was rushed, I do agree with you, but it's about as long as the others (a little shorter, but not by that much).
> 
> I am thinking that "crustacean" will be the next prompt. I'm not working with any outline at all, so I'm just winging this thing.
> 
> I'm also trying to post _something_ every Thursday, and hopefully that means I'll be updating this and other projects more often.


	4. Crustacean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been well over a year since the last time I played, and I'm sorry if I'm not describing something from the game correctly. I also changed things a little. The Mother of Pearl is a bit bigger, as an example, and employs more people to get stuff done.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

For once, Noctis woke up before everyone else. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, where a streak of bright sunlight danced, and he listened to Ignis’s soft snores from the bed next to his.

The hotel rooms were enormous, almost as large as the room he had at the Citadel, but it was meant for more than one person. The beds were also soft, softer than the sandy bottom of the ocean, and it was strange how he sank into the mattress. Even in the land-dweller study, he had only ever sat on hard surfaces. There was nothing like normal land-dweller seating in the room because merfolk would just get it soaking wet, and they could not be outside of water for too long, anyway.

Noctis had no idea if he liked the feeling; it was too comfortable, and he had yet to decide if that was a good thing or not. Gladio would tell him it was a bad thing because he was already lazy. Cor would tell him to stop being weird. Ignis had already told him it was nice, and he had fallen asleep before Noctis had.

The young prince had been too excited about everything to even consider sleeping. It was his first day as a land-dweller. His pilgrimage had been a dream of his since the day he had learned of it. He had no idea how anyone could have expected him to sleep. All he had wanted to do was stay up and flip through the TV channels in the hotel room, but his connection to the Crystal always made him tired. He had fallen asleep while looking through a menu of an overwhelming amount of shows and movies to watch. Someone had carried him to bed, and now he was awake, wishing he could go out on his own without receiving an earful from Cor or Ignis.

Noctis turned to Ignis. The larger merman looked small while bundled up under his blankets. Drool glistened on his cheek and dampened his pillow. His braid had gotten wrapped around his head. Ignis had never looked so funny in his sleep.

Noctis bit his bottom lip to stifle a chuckle. He was sure he looked just as terrible, especially with his hair left loose, but his advisor was adorable when he let his guard down.

Moving slowly, Noctis pushed the soft blankets off himself, and he crawled out of bed. He found his underwear, a pair of black boxers, lying on the floor, and he put them on before he left the room, shutting the door behind him as quietly as he could. The main room was dark, and Gladio’s snoring was loud, audible even behind a closed door.

Noctis went to the sliding doors, and he pulled open the curtains. The sky was bright yellow as the sun rose. There were small fishing boats dotting the distant ocean, and even further back were the two mountains of Angelgard.

It had not occurred to Noctis that Leviathan had dropped them onto the sacred island of Angelgard until they had been far enough away to see the mountains. Its name came from its mountains resembling an angel’s wings. He had read somewhere that it had spawned beliefs of an ancient goddess, but there was no goddess known for wings on her back in the Hexathon, none known to them these days, at least.

Sometimes Noctis wondered what it would have been like if such a deity had existed. That goddess could have given reign over a clan of angels rather than merfolk, but he knew he would have been trapped in that world just as much as he was as a merman.

Noctis stepped onto the patio, sighing as a cool breeze blew into his hair, and he drew in a deep breath, feeling at home with the sharp saltiness in the air. His bare feet slapped against the dock as he walked forward, and he leaned over the railing to look at the fish darting around the stilts that kept the hotel floating above water.

He wanted to dive into the ocean, but Cor had already warned him that would be a bad idea. Leviathan might have given him legs to wonder across land, but he had his tail again whenever he dived into a pool of water. Rain and showers would be fine, but taking a bath would be enough to change him back.

“What the hell you doin’ out here, boy?”

Noctis gasped as he spun toward the sudden voice. He found Cid squinting at him from the doorway, scratching his chest over a gray T-shirt, and he wore his baseball cap. The man seemed to never be without his hat.

“Ah, s-sorry, sir,” Noctis said, still rather uncomfortable around the old land-dweller. “I just wanted to look around.”

“So, ya went out here in yer britches?”

Noctis frowned as he looked down at himself.

“Yer undies. There are people out here—Ah, never min’. Git inside. Cor’s got plans fer ya, and I need a smoke.”

“Th-thank you, sir.”

Noctis stepped past Cid and went back inside. A sleepy Gladio sat on the couch, rubbing his tired eyes, and there was no one else in the room. Gladio’s thick hair was a wreck about his head. He gave Noctis a light wave as the prince joined him on the couch.

“You’re up early, Princess,” Gladio said.

“You’re up late. Where’s Cor and Iggy?”

“Iggy slept late, too. Cor went to get him.”

A moment later, Cor emerged from the room, wearing his full outfit from the day before, and he nodded at Noctis as he sat in a chair across from them. Ignis emerged wearing all of his clothes, and he sat next to Noctis on the couch. He looked better rested than he had in years.

“I need to go through our plan,” Cor said. “I won’t be holding your hands during your journey. You’ll have to figure out most of it on your own, but luckily the land-dwellers have come up with a way for people to communicate with each other from great distances.”

“Are we getting smartphones?” Noctis gasped, and he leaned toward Cor.

Everyone’s amusement at his excitement flowed into him, and his cheeks grew warm.

“You are, Your Highness, but not until we make it to Hammerhead. I need to teach you how to take on hunts. Now that you’re used to your legs, I need to test your skills as warriors out of water, and then we’ll head out.”

Noctis had fought a lesser god in the ocean, so he had no doubts he could fight something small on land.

“I think we can handle that,” Noctis said.

“We’ll see,” Cor said, and he smirked at the prince. “Let's get ready.”

* * *

Noctis’s scalp stung from the rough treatment Ignis had given it. The older merman had insisted it would be unsuitable for them to go into a fight with their long hair getting in the way, but he so rarely bothered to do anything to his hair himself that it was always a knotted mess by the time Ignis got to him. It felt even worse above land, and now he realized that he needed to take better care of it if he wanted to avoid aggressive hair-brushing again.

Noctis forgot all of it when they stepped out of the hotel and into the restaurant.

The restaurant was under a large roof, but it was an open outdoor space. It was full of land-dwellers eating meals at tables, walking around the edge to look at the water beneath them, or cooking behind counters at the center. Children giggled as they ran around each other. Lovers leaned close to each other.

The best part was that their feelings could not overwhelm his senses, like the merfolk's did in Insomnia, because they had no connection to the Crystal.

“This way, boys.”

Cor walked toward the counter in the center of the room. Gladio slapped Noctis on the back as he passed him.

“Stop staring, Princess,” he teased. “Boss needs us.”

“I’m not staring,” Noctis lied, even as he continued to watch the land-dwellers.

Ignis grabbed his elbow, and he guided the prince to Cor’s side. A blonde woman wearing a maroon shirt and a black necktie turned to them with a tired smile.

“Welcome to the Mother of Pearl!” she said. “My name is Cocturra. How may I help you?”

“We’re looking for hunts,” Cor said, “preferably for apprentices.”

“Ah, good! We’ve had some nasties terrorizing our guests today. I’ll go check the official channels. How about something to drink while we wait? It’ll be on the house.”

Cocturra pointed them toward a table, and she motioned for a boy wearing a white shirt and maroon pants to help them. They ordered different things so they could all try new things, except Cor, who ordered a glass of water. Ignis’s eye lit up as he tasted the coffee, but Noctis grimaced at the bitter flavor, earning a chuckle from the three older men. Conversely, Noctis loved his soda while Ignis questioned whether either of them should have been drinking it at all.

Cor picked rubyshears for their first hunt. He produced a pen from his pocket, and he had Noctis sign the paper. When the prince held it out, the older man waved it away.

“Give it to someone behind the counter.”

Noctis blinked at the older man, suppressing the pout he knew was coming.

“You’ll be doing this a lot, Noct,” Cor said, “so you might as well get used to it now.”

It made sense. Cor would leave them later, despite all of his excitement to travel on land and live as a land-dweller, he knew he would come across as weird to real land-dwellers because their cultures were so different. He had been hoping to let Ignis speak to land-dwellers for him. There was no doubt in his mind that he could guilt his advisor to do it, but never in front of Cor. He had never tolerated letting people do things for the prince when he could do it himself.

“Noctis, just hand them the paper,” Ignis said, jarring him from his thoughts. “It should be easy enough.”

It should be, but his only interactions with land-dwellers so far had all been with Cid, the crankiest man on Eos.

“Come on, Princess,” Gladio said, and he nodded toward the chefs. “The faster you get it done, the faster we can get that phone you want so much.”

“Ah, okay,” Noctis said.

The prince looked at the chefs behind the counter, and his back was stiff as he rose from the table, holding the piece of paper in front of him like a shield. He took a deep breath, and then he forced his legs to take him forward, reciting in his head the words he needed to say.

As soon as he reached the counter, his mind went blank, and his heart leaped in his chest.

Cocturra noticed him, and she smiled at him just like she had Cor.

“Have you boys decided on a hunt?” she asked without stopping what she had been doing on the stove.

“Uh, yeah,” Noctis squeaked, and he thrust the paper toward her.

Cocturra wiped her hands on a towel, and she took the paper from him.

“Ah, no one else has claimed that one, so there’s no one to fight over it. I’ll file it in a minute, but you’re free to take it on anytime.”

“Thanks, uh, m-ma’am.”

Cocturra nodded, and she went back to work.

Noctis turned, cheeks burning, and he walked back toward the table, back rigid again. He caught Gladio laughing behind his hand, and Ignis rubbed his upper lip to hide his smirk. Cor, at least, always looked at him like he was a few fish short of a school, and that was nothing new.

“Ready to go, Noct?” Cor asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Great. I’ll show you where to go.”

* * *

Noctis had not expected the beach to be so hot under the sun. He had gone to the surface with Ignis in broad daylight, felt the sun’s rays heat his skin, but it had never gotten so bad as he felt while following Cor down the beach, carefully avoiding the ocean as it lapped over the sand. It also brought him a sensation he had never felt before: moisture clinging to parts of his body, particularly in his armpits on his back.

Noctis could not recall the word for it, but it was weird with his clothes on.

The further down the beach they got, the thinner the crowd of land-dwellers became until they found themselves alone. It was easier for him to enjoy the cliffs and rocks in the distance with no one else there. He was eager to see beyond those cliffs, and if he could fend off some rubyshears, then he would get to see more of the land of Lucis.

Finally, they heard the clacking of crabs, and Noctis jerked his attention forward. Giant crabs had gathered together on the shore. The tops of their bodies were pale, but the bottoms were bright red.

Noctis paused, staring at the monsters through widened eyes. He had seen many crabs before, but none of them had been the same size as himself.

“All right, here’s your bounty,” Cor said, gesturing toward the massive crabs.

“ _Those_ things?” Noctis squawked.

Gladio turned toward him, smirking. With a flash of blue light and the tickling of glass, a six foot long greatsword appeared in his hand, and he slung it over his shoulder.

“Are you scared, Princess?” he said.

Noctis drew himself to his full height, despite how much shorter he was than Gladio—and everyone else in the group. He summoned a sword to his hand, and he aimed its tip toward the rubyshears, which were turning in their general direction as the mermen talked.

“Hell, no.”

“I’ll be here to make sure you boys don’t get hurt,” Cor cut in. “Fighting is a lot different up here than it is down there.”

“I won’t let dinner kick my ass,” Noctis said.

“Let’s not get too cocky, Noct,” Ignis said, and he summoned a long spear to his hands. “I’ve lost count of all the times I’ve had to rescue you when ‘dinner’ pinched your fingers.”

“I was five years old.”

“And six, ten, eighteen—”

“All right! We get it. Let’s go!”

Noctis threw his sword toward a rubyshear. It traveled faster than he was used to in water, and it plunged into its shell. He warped, and he planted his foot against the crab’s face as he yanked out his sword, blue blood flinging off the blade. After dodging snapping claws, he slashed toward the wound he had just made, slicing a huge gash into its shell. Its eyes went wild, and he stabbed it again to end its misery.

As Noctis shifted to move onto his next target, he caught Gladio cleaving one in half with his greatsword, and Ignis pole-vaulted away from a pincer. He warped to the nearest rubyshear, and he found it just as easy to cut down as the first one had been. When he next looked up, Gladio hacked at one more giant crab, and Ignis stabbed it in the middle.

The three merman looked around the beach for more, but they found all of them dead. The blue blood of the rubyshears soaking into the sand beneath them.

Loud clapping startled them, and Noctis jerked his attention toward it, finding Cor clapping while he smirked at them.

“Well done, boys,” he said. “You cut them down faster than I expected you to.”

“Uh, thanks, I think?” Noctis said, and he scratched the back of his neck.

“We can hack them up and save them for dinner, and we have to find their hearts to give to someone at the Mother of Pearl. They need proof of kill if we want gil for it.”

“Gil?”

“Yeah, land-dweller money. You’ll need a hell of a lot out here. Your father gave me enough to pay Cid, for the hotel room, and your cell phones, but you’ll earn the rest that you need yourself. Hunts are the best way because people don’t ask unnecessary questions.”

No unnecessary questions meant it was easier for them to pretend they were regular land-dwellers. Noctis nodded at that, excitement warming his chest again, but this time he felt Gladio and Ignis’s excitement joining his. They had been looking forward to this for such a long time, and they had survived a crucial step toward it.

“All right, let’s get this over with and get back to the Mother of Pearl,” Cor instructed, motioning toward the dead rubyshears. “You boys have earned a hot meal, and I, for one, am starving.”

That reminded Noctis of the emptiness in his stomach. They had eaten some complimentary sweets in the hotel before bed, but they had eaten nothing before going for the hunt. He felt excited all over again to taste a proper land-dweller meal for the first time, and he hurried to help them hack up the rubyshears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was surprised when I discovered that Coctura has the same last name as Navyth. I had completely forgotten they were related. haha
> 
> The next chapter is "Wreckage," and that should be up next Thursday because I haven't worked on much else for the FFXV fandom beyond a couple of outlines. I've also stopped playing FF7R, so hopefully that means I can dedicate a little more time to writing things.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and highly encouraging!
> 
> I'm also gathering up some holiday-themed prompts early so I can post every day in December (maybe even November), and any suggestions for that would help me a lot, too.


	5. Wreckage

With bellies full of delicious crab, Cor, Noctis, and the retinue followed Cid through the parking lot of Galdin Quay. There were a lot of vehicles, but except for a few vendors standing beside carts, it was empty. Everyone was either in the hotel or on the beach, which was now safe, thanks to their efforts.

Cid had said he had a surprise for him from his father. Noctis tried to think what it could possibly be, but he could think of nothing beyond a car because they were in a parking lot, but the old man could have just meant they required a car to get to it.

They approached a black car. It was shiny, and the letters on the—Noctis forgot what it was called—the plate-thing read “RHS-113.” Cid touched the side of the car, and for the first time since he had met him, Noctis saw the old man smiling.

“This pretty girl,” Cid said, turning to Noctis, “was yer old man’s. We spent weeks competin’ fer hunts to pay fer her. When he went home, I promised ta take good care of her fer ya.”

“The Regalia,” Cor said, sounding breathless as he touched the side of the car, too. “She’s thirty years old, and she looks brand new, Cid.”

“She aged a helluva lot better than I did, that’s fer sure.”

Cid turned to Noctis, face turning serious again.

“We’ll teach ya how to drive this beauty, but ya ain’t takin’ the wheel ‘til I trust ya.”

Noctis perked up at learning he was going to be able to drive it in the future. He had seen cars in comics before, but he had assumed he would never get the chance to drive one.

“I’d like that, sir,” Noctis said, even though Cid was not his superior in any sense of the word beyond age and life experience.

“Ah, you’ll probably total the old girl.”

Noctis’s excitement fled at that, and the other mermen’s amusement replaced it in their bond.

Cid pulled out a key from his back pocket, and he slid into the vehicle. He unlocked the rest of the doors so everyone else could pile in. It was roomy. Everyone with long legs had plenty of room to sit, which was something Gladio made sure Noctis knew he would never have to understand because he was short.

Even though he was _not_ short. He was average, and Gladio was a freak of nature.

There was a light rumble as the Regalia started, but it was a mere whisper in comparison to the _Royal Vessel_.

“I added a nice lil’ feature since the last time ya were here, Cor,” Cid said.

The old man pressed a button on the steering column, and the roof of the car folded away, tucking itself into the trunk. Cor watched it with his eyebrows raised.

“Ah, nice,” Cor said.

“Why can’t ya be excited ‘bout somethin’, huh?”

“I am. So excited.”

“Smartass.”

Noctis watched in horror as the old man _punch_ ed Cor in the shoulder, and Cor just turned forward without punching back. Clarus had never even gotten away with that, and he was bigger and had more political power than Cor.

It had to be because Cid was old—twice as old as Cor—and brittle.

"All right, buckle up, boys," Cid said, and the Regalia moved forward.

* * *

Noctis was thrilled to watch the landscape pass them as they rode in the Regalia. It was not much different from what he had seen in Galdin Quay, but there were land-dwelling animals there he had always wanted to see with his own eyes: anaks, dualhorns, and even the terrifying sabertusks. He was eager to see them up close.

"Oh, my," Ignis said.

"What's up, Iggy?" Gladio asked.

“A car wreck,” Cor said.

Noctis jerked his attention to Cor, catching his reflection in the side mirror. There were wrinkles in his brow as he looked out his window, and he shifted his gaze to find they were approaching a bright yellow car. The front of the car was folded around a rock, and smoke rose from it.

“It looks like it just happened,” Cor said. “Maybe we should pull over and take a look.”

Cid parked the Regalia along the side of the road. They could hear a noise coming from the car, but it was not an engine noise. It was more like music, but it was too far away to catch what kind. Cor was the first to step out of the car. Gladio and Ignis made sure Noctis was the last. Even Cid got out of the car, but he used it as an excuse to light up a cigar while the younger people went on a manhunt.

Cor frowned as he drew closer to the wrecked truck, holding up a hand behind them to tell the younger mermen to stay back. The music playing from the car was loud enough to hear now, and he thought he recognized it, though not well enough to name it. Even from a distance Noctis could tell there was no one in the car, which offered some relief, but it was troubling to think where its driver might have gone.

“There are some footprints going around the other side of the rock,” Cor said, and he drew an invisible line in the air over footprints that Noctis could not see from his point of view. “Ignis, come with me this way. Gladio, take Noct with you around the other side.”

“Yes, sir,” all three of the younger mermen said.

They summoned weapons from their Armiger. Cor summoned a massive katana, and he held it at his hip as he walked around the rock, Ignis following close behind him with a spear in hand. Gladio had his preferred greatsword, but Noctis had a spear, recalling they were easier to use against most desert creatures than swords.

Noctis felt his heart hammering in his chest as he followed his Shield around the other side of the rock. It was a bigger rock than he had expected, going deeper into the desert than it looked like it would from the front. Then, they heard the growling of a wild animal—multiple wild animals—and the first thing that came to mind was a sabertusk.

Gladio turned and held up his free hand, signaling for Noctis to stand back. The prince nodded, but he held his spear at the ready. He watched Gladio go forward, and Noctis remained pressed against the rock—

“Shit!” Gladio cried, and he dashed forward swinging his greatsword.

Noctis took that as his cue, and he dashed forward.

Sabertusks were ugly creatures, like scrawny dogs with spikes along their spines and teeth much too big for their faces, and they made horrible cries as they charged toward Gladio, yelping as he swung his greatsword into one of them. There were at least ten altogether, and Noctis worried as he used a warp-strike to launch himself into the battle that neither he nor his Shield would make it out of the battle unscathed.

Noctis pulled his spear out of the sabertusk, warp-stepped out of the path of one that leaped at him, and stabbed the spear into another before, and he started the dance over again, finding it more difficult to get a kill-strike than he had with the rubyshears that morning.

A whimper broke through the sounds of the angry howling and snarls of the sabertusks, and he warp-phased out of the way of attacks as he looked around the desert. He found a blond boy scrambling up the rocks. It made sense now why Gladio had rushed into battle if someone had been in danger.

“Noctis!”

That was Cor’s voice, and Noctis was relieved to have his advisor and the Marshal join them, especially the Marshal. Noctis loved Ignis, but Cor was a war machine unlike anyone else he had ever known.

“Noctis!” Ignis cried over the sabertusks. “We need ice!”

“Can do!”

The prince returned his spear to the Armiger, and he focused on warp-stepping again as he focused his thoughts of the iciest of ocean waters into the center of his hand. A white ball of energy formed in his palm, snowflakes swirling around it, and he lobbed it in the air.

“Watch out!” Noctis cried, and he summoned his spear to warp out of the way.

Ice and snow burst from the ball of energy as soon as it struck the ground, and the sabertusks howled and yelped. Noctis turned in time to find the creatures frozen in place, eyes rolling wild before the spell took their lives.

“N-N-Noct!”

Noctis turned to Gladio. The Shield was covered in frost, and he had planted his greatsword into the ground to hold himself upright while he shivered. The prince snickered, and then there was a sharp spike of pain in the back of his head. He yelped, and his hand flew to that spot as he turned.

“Be more careful with your magic, Noctis,” Ignis said, voice stern as he walked past Noctis to help Gladio.

“I said to watch out,” Noctis grumbled as he pouted.

“Wow! It’s snowing!”

Noctis startled at the unfamiliar voice, and he remembered the blond on the rocks. He ran to the voice, finding a young man about Noctis’s age nestled in between a couple of large boulders. There was a wide grin on his face as he looked at the snow Noctis had put on the ground, and most importantly, there was blood on his face and caked in his hair.

“Ah, hey!” Noctis said as he climbed the rocks toward the stranger. “Was it your car that got wrecked?”

“Huh?” the blond said, turning glassy pale blue eyes toward him.

“There was a car that got smashed. Was it yours?”

“Ah, maybe? My head hurts.”

“Were you alone? Did you have someone with you?”

“No, I’m always alone.”

Noctis ignored the sad tone in his voice as he reached the blond nestled in the rocks. He wore all-black clothes, common among Hunters in the region, and he had guns holstered at his hips—except for the one in his hand, the prince noticed. Scratches covered the blond’s arms, and his pants had been ripped to shreds, exposing cuts on his legs, too.

“How’s he look, Noct?” Cor asked.

The blond’s eyebrows flew up, and he leaned forward to look down. Noctis grabbed his shoulder to keep him from falling.

“Whoa! I’ve seen you before!” he said. “You’re the guy!”

Noctis looked down at his companions. Cor quirked up an eyebrow at the blond’s reaction. Ignis frowned at the Marshal. Gladio was still shivering from the blizzard spell, and he wore his leather jacket.

“He’s pretty messed up, Cor,” Noctis called down. “Should I, you know?”

Cor crossed his arms over his chest as he thought. They had agreed to conserve as much of Noctis’s magic as possible while on land. Warping was the easiest and cost the least amount of energy; elemental magic took more out of him, but healing took the most from him and was best left to serious injuries.

“If you feel up to it,” Cor said.

Noctis nodded, and he turned back to the blond, whose eyes had drifted shut. He was quick to press two fingers to his throat, and he breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he felt a steady pulse there.

"Maybe we should lower him down here first," Ignis suggested.

With Gladio still a shivering mess, Cor stepped up to help Noctis lower the concussed blond to the ground. The three larger mermen grimaced as they took in his condition. Once they got him as comfortable as they could, back leaning against the rock, Noctis placed his hands to the blond’s head, which was sticky with his blood.

Closing his eyes, Noctis remembered the warmth he had felt in his chest when his father would tell him bedtime stories to lull him to sleep, and he felt that same warmth envelope his hands. Energy drained from his body as he pushed that warmth into the blond, and he drew that warmth back into himself as soon as he felt the strong urge to lay down and take a long nap.

The blond let out a sigh, and he slumped against the rock, eyes fluttering closed. Noctis's own eyes grew heavy, and when he felt a warm hand grab his arm, he realized he had tilted over. He shook his head, and he brought up a hand to rub his tired eyes.

"Are you all right, Noctis?" Ignis asked, close enough to have been the one to catch him.

"'M fine," the prince mumbled. "Jus' tired."

"Time to get to the Regalia," Cor said.

"Are we taking Blondie here, too?" Gladio asked. "The Regalia's big, but not big enough for four grown-ass men."

"It would be rather cruel to leave him here," Ignis added.

"We're close to Hammerhead," Cor said. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem to have you holding him while he sleeps."

The last thing Noctis saw before falling asleep in Ignis's arms was Cor hefting the blond over his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try posting a new chapter for another project next week, so I don't know when this one will be updated again. The next prompt is "smartphone."
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and highly encouraging!
> 
> I know people don't really get on this site to look at people's original work, but I posted a fantasy/superhero short story earlier today. It would mean a lot to me if you checked it out. It's free, and it would help me out a lot. [It's on my Medium blog.](https://medium.com/@Stephanieritaclark/touch-d348f3f1c37a?sk=e7f45002919953d004bd266bc0b1227f)


	6. Smartphone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late because my Internet decided it didn't want to work all day, and then I could save my work or edit it with the fancy software I purchased.

Gladio was tasked with waking Noctis once they arrived at Hammerhead Service Station. It lived up to its name with the roof over the convenience store and the gas pumps forming the shape of an actual hammerhead. The prince did not have the energy to appreciate it much. His companions took him straight to a caravan where he collapsed onto a bed and went back to sleep.

When Noctis woke up again, he still felt groggy, but he could keep his eyes open at the very least. Gladio snored from the bunk across from him, and when he shifted to look, he found Gladio sprawled across the small bed, legs and arms hanging off the side. Ignis slept in the bunk below Noctis, judging by the clothes neatly folded on the end of the bed.

Noctis’s stomach growled, and he sighed. He climbed out of the bed slowly to avoid waking anyone up, and he tiptoed through the caravan until he found the kitchenette. Cor was nowhere in the caravan, so he assumed that he had gone somewhere with Cid. There was a note on the table, written in Ignis’s impeccable handwriting, and it told him how to operate the microwave, which was enough to make his heart soar with excitement at using some kind of electronic, even if it was not as cool as the promised smartphone.

The food heated up in the microwave, and he marveled at the land-dwellers' ability to do such things without fire or magic.

“Noctis?”

The prince startled at the sudden voice, and he turned to find Ignis hovering in the doorway, wiping off his glasses on his undershirt.

“Hey,” Noctis said around a mouthful of rice.

“How are you feeling?” Ignis asked.

“Better.”

“Good.”

“How’s the blond kid?”

“His name is Prompto, and thanks to you, he’s fine. Cid said he recognized him when he carried him to the Regalia. He’s a hunter, and he came out there to take care of the very voretooth pack we killed. All the money went to us when he turned it in.”

“Nice. Glad he’s doing better.”

“He doesn’t remember anything that happened to him, and we told him nothing about the magic he witnessed us using. He wanted to thank you for helping him, and he’s still recovering at the clinic as far as I’m aware.”

“Is that permission to go out?”

“Cor’s still here, and it’s a safe area. Hunters gather here often. I trust you’ll be fine, and I’m sure you would like to take a look at the cell phones at the shop. Cor has the money for it, and he wanted to let you pick out a device yourself.”

Noctis’s grogginess faded away at that, replaced by excitement, and he gave his adviser an enthusiastic nod.

“Cool.”

“I’m going back to bed, then. Good night, Noctis.”

“Night, Iggy.”

Ignis went back to bed, and Noctis scarfed down the food. He left the container in the sink, and then he dashed out of the caravan.

Despite it being the middle of the night, there were plenty of people wearing all-black clothing walking around the caravan park and the service station. Some of them nodded and waved at him, despite having no idea who he was, and he waved back at them, heart fluttering with anxiety again. He still had no idea how to interact with land-dwellers, and he hoped Cid’s crankiness was not a good indicator of what to expect.

Noctis went to the service station, the smell of gasoline stinging his nose. He had smelled that once while spying on land-dwellers with Ignis, and he hated that smell. It was one he would have to get used to while on land, but it was too strong for his sensitive merman nose.

A big door had been left open, allowing him to see inside the building. A girl wearing a yellow jacket and the shortest shorts he had seen on anyone yet leaned over a car, checking out the insides. Noctis hoped she worked there as he approached her.

“Ah, excuse me?” Noctis said, hoping that was the correct phrase.

The girl startled, and she spun toward him, revealing a hat just like Cid’s, curly blonde hair peeking out from it, and a pink bikini top that showed off way more of her than he had expected. It was nothing too unusual for him because everyone had their boobs out under water, but he had been led to believe that land-dwellers were far more modest.

The weather was hot, so he supposed he did not blame her for wearing so little. She flashed him a wide grin as she pushed away from the car.

“Hey, sir, what can I do ya for?” the girl asked, and she grabbed a cloth from her back pocket and wiped off her hands.

“Sorry to bother you,” Noctis said, hoping his voice was loud enough for her to hear as his heart leaped in his chest. “I was just looking for someone.”

“It’s no trouble. Who ya looking for?”

She was friendly enough. It made it easier to relax around her.

“Cor? A tall old guy. Scary look on his face all the time.”

The girl laughed at that. She looked cute, he thought.

“Yeah, I know who ya mean,” the girl said. “He’s with Pawpaw. If yer lookin’ for ‘im, that must mean you’re the prince.”

Noctis startled at that, and he looked around, confirming that no one had been around to hear that.

“Relax, hon’. I know it’s supposed to be a secret ‘n’ all that. Let me introduce myself. I’m Cid’s granddaughter, Cindy. I help run the shop.”

Noctis’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline. He had never expected someone so chipper to have any relation to that old man.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Noctis.”

“Same to ya, Noct. Pawpaw and his friend are just in the back room waitin’ for ya.”

Cindy hooked a thumb over her shoulder toward a door in the back of the open space. Noctis nodded, and she flashed him another wide grin before excusing herself back to her work. He went to the door. There was a window that allowed him to peak inside, and he caught sight of someone’s shoulder off to the side. It looked like Cor’s.

Noctis knocked on the door before he tried the handle of the door, finding it unlocked. He heard Cid’s familiar voice calling for him to come on in, and he went inside, turning toward the shoulder. Cid and Cor sat on either side of a desk. The oldest man’s feet propped up on another chair next to him.

Cor, with his arms crossed over his chest, nodded at him as he approached them. Noctis turned to Cid, and he gave him a lazy salute.

“Good, uh, evening, sir,” he said.

“Back at ya, kid.”

“Feeling better, Your Highness?” Cor asked.

“Yeah, but I could use a nap.”

Cor let out a light chuckle. He stood from Cid’s desk.

“I assume you want your smartphone now.”

Noctis reminded himself not to sound too eager as he said, “Yeah, sure.”

Cor promised Cid he would be back. Then, he clapped Noctis on the shoulder, and he led the younger merman out of the office. They both wished Cindy a good night as they left the Service Station.

“Are you going to have one, too?” Noctis asked as he followed Cor down that street, giving friendly waves to tired people.

“A smartphone? Of course, I have to make myself available to you somehow.”

Noctis’s belly fluttered with excitement as he wondered about all the things he could do with one. Some of his most recent comics showed people playing games and reading other comics on them, and he could not wait to experience that himself.

They made it to a shop. It was empty of people, but there was a counter near the back of the room. Signs and phones were all around the room on other counters. Noctis ran to one of the glass displays, and he looked down at it. Some signs had five- to six-digit numbers next to them, and he wished he had a good point of reference to help him understand how expensive that was.

“Which one can I get?” Noctis asked.

“Definitely not these,” Cor said, motioning toward the phones he had been looking at. “This way.”

Cor guided him toward a display of “refurbished devices,” whatever that meant. They had much smaller numbers on them than the first ones he had looked at, and some of them displayed years closer to the present one.

“You can pick any of these, but I would stick to newer models, if I were you.”

As Noctis stared down at them, a young woman emerged from another room.

“Ah, hello,” she said. “We’re about to close, sirs.”

“We lost our phones in an emergency hunters’ mission,” Cor lied. “We’re not going to keep you long, right, Noct?”

Noctis jolted at being dragged into the conversation.

“R-right.”

The young woman shrugged, and she made her way to the counter in the middle of the room.

“I’ll give you a few minutes,” she said.

Noctis turned back to the display case before him. He had no idea what made any of them better than the others, so he chose one with a larger screen and a bigger number attached to it. After the girl got it out of the case, it took a few minutes to set up, Cor giving her some information that he did not understand.

All he knew was he could not wait to get his hands on it.

Cor walked with Noctis out of the shop, keeping the device away from the prince as he added more information into it.

“If you have any questions about how to use this, Ignis already figured most of it out. I’m putting everyone’s number in it, including mine and Cid’s. You can reach us anytime you need us.”

“Cool.”

Noctis reminded himself not to bounce and grin with excitement when Cor finally handed him the phone. Cor showed him how to navigate it, and then Noctis had free rein to do as he pleased with it. He just looked through the icons as he followed Cor to the service station.

“Pay attention to where you’re going, Noct,” Cor warned him, amusement in his tone.

“I am.”

“You’re not. Wait until you get back to the caravan to mess with it.”

Noctis rolled his eyes, and he stuck it into his back pocket with a huff.

“Make sure you don’t break it,” Cor continued. “At least not until you can afford a replacement.”

“I’ll do my best.”

It would be easier if he could put it into his Armiger, but he had already short-circuited a few devices when he had attempted to take land-dweller things with him into his room. Those had been older devices, but he had no doubts magic would have the same effect on newer ones.

“Good. I’ll wake you all up when it’s time to get started on driving lessons. Ignis in particular, but I want you all to learn.”

Noctis felt a heaviness in his stomach as he recalled the wrecked truck they had passed earlier that day. Its driver, Prompto, had been in so much trouble after his accident, and he hated to think that could happen to him or the others—to anyone.

“Right.”

Cor nodded. He patted the younger merman on the back.

“I want to finish talking with Cid before I head to bed. Don’t get lost trying to make it back to the caravan.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine. But where’s the infirmary? I was hoping to talk to that blond kid.”

“Don’t worry about it. He already left to get a caravan. We might run into him tomorrow, though. He doesn’t have a truck to help him go places anymore.”

Noctis was disappointed to hear that, but at least there was still a chance of catching up to him again. He just wanted to see for himself that the blond was okay.

As soon as Cor was out of ear shot, Noctis pulled out his new smartphone, and he looked at the icons again. Most of them were nothing special: calendar, calculator, clock, and other basic stuff. MoogTube was the first interesting one he came across. It was a red icon with a big white arrow in the center and an antenna at that top.

Noctis clicked on it, but it warned him that he was not connected to a network. He looked around to look for anyone who would know his secret to avoid embarrassing himself by asking someone who would think he was stupid for not understanding something so basic—if it was even something everyone knew. He had no idea.

Frowning at his phone, Noctis walked back to the caravan. He looked at other things on the device, but nothing else helped him understand his problem. A few icons even told him the same thing that MoogTube had when he tapped them.

“Hey, take care of yourself, you hear?” Noctis overheard someone shouting from the convenience store as he passed it.

“Yeah, thanks!” a very familiar voice said. “I’ll try!”

Noctis jerked his attention from his phone. He caught a blond boy waving at someone inside the store, but when he turned, Noctis caught his face. It was Prompto, the poor kid he had healed before they had made it to Hammerhead.

The prince jumped when Prompto glanced at him, and then he did a double-take, looking at him with a frown. He quirked up an eyebrow, and he turned away with a shrug.

Noctis’s heart sped in his chest. He was torn between letting him go about his business and speaking with him. The merman had never introduced himself to anyone before, and he wondered if it would be strange to speak to him when they hardly knew each other. The boy was fine, so there was no need to check on him, at least.

“Hey!” Noctis called.

Prompto stopped, and he turned to him, the frown still on his face.

“We met earlier,” Noctis explained, “but you, uh, might not remember me.”

“Oh, were you one of the guys who rescued me earlier?”

“Yeah, I helped patch you up.”

Prompto’s face brightened, and his shoulders relaxed. He went up to Noctis, holding out his hand. It took Noctis a moment to remember he was supposed to shake it, and he hoped his blush was not too noticeable to the first land-dweller he had ever gotten to shake hands with.

“Thanks for the help,” Prompto said. “I’m such a damn klutz. My name’s Prompto Argentum.”

“Uh, Noct Gar,” the prince said, giving him the alias they had agreed on before leaving Insomnia.

Prompto grimaced, and he reached up a hand to scratch the back of his head.

“Oh, yeah, you’re the guy who got knocked out because of me, right? Sorry about that, dude.”

“Nah, it was my fault. Everyone always yells at me for being reckless.”

Prompto chuckled.

“Yeah, same. But are you feeling okay?”

“It wasn’t too bad, and I have a hard head.”

They chuckled, and Noctis realized he had no idea what to say to Prompto next. He looked down at his new phone, and he considered asking him what the hell he needed to do to get “connected.” It made his cheeks heat just to think about it.

“Hey, are you guys going to head off early tomorrow?” Prompto asked.

“I think we’re hanging out here for a little while.”

“Cool, then, let me buy you all breakfast at Takka’s.”

“You already gave us a bunch of gil. You don’t need to do that.”

“Nah, that was for completing my hunt for me. Breakfast is for saving my life. I should have asked about it earlier, but I was still pretty fog-brained.”

Noctis hated to take more from the blond after he had nearly died, but he would have liked another chance to talk to him. He wanted to talk to more people on land.

“I’ll talk about it with my friends.”

“All right. I’m going to head to bed. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

Prompto held out his fist. Noctis blinked at it, wheels turning in his brain as he struggled to think of what he was supposed to do. After a moment, the blond gave an awkward laugh, and he dropped his hand to his side.

“Good night,” he said as he walked away.

Noctis felt his cheeks heat up again, and he lowered his gaze back to his phone as he walked toward his own caravan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this comes across as a rushed mess because it kind of is.
> 
> I believe I said I would be updatng something else last week, but then I didn't finish the other project. I'm not certain when I will update next, and I don't know which prompt I'll be going for. Maybe "ancestors," but I'm not sure. I've run out of buffer chapters already, so I can't be as predictable as I would like to be.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and highly encouraging!


	7. Ancestors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did some editing of the other chapters to help myself get back into the groove of writing this one. The only change I really made was adding a couple sentences where Noctis dances with Iris in the first chapter.
> 
> It’s so weird that Noctis has called Ignis “Specs” or “Speccy” even once in this fic because he doesn’t have glasses.
> 
> Also, it’s been a long while since the last time I played FFXV, so I don’t remember a lot of details. My terrible Internet also made it difficult to look up details when I needed them.

Noctis figured out the “connection” thing on his own when he messed around with the icons that appeared when he dragged his thumb down the screen. Arrows flashed in the upper corner, and pictures replaced the connection message on the MoogTube app. He discovered it was a video app, and he watched random videos throughout the night until he fell asleep at the table.

Ignis woke him up with the shake of his shoulder, and it took Noctis a full minute to remember Prompto had offered to buy them breakfast at some place that started with a “T.”

“Do you mean Takka’s?” Ignis asked, an amused smirk twisting his lips.

“That sounds right, yeah.”

Ignis brushed out Noctis’s hair again as they waited for Gladio to come back from his after-run shower, a morning ritual Cor had instilled in the larger man when he had come out of the ocean for his tattoo. Noctis hated waking up too much to even consider doing it himself.

Takka’s was a circular building near Cid’s service station. Many black-clad hunters were already taking up most of the restaurant when they got there. Noctis looked around for Prompto as they entered the building, the smells of unfamiliar meats floating to his nose.

“Heya, guys!” Prompto called to them.

The blond sat at a table across the restaurant from them, and he waved at them. A wide grin was on his face. Noctis and his companions went to him.

“Good to see you’re doing better,” Gladio said.

“Yeah, I feel fantastic!” Prompto beamed. “Did Noct tell you breakfast’s on me?”

“There’s no need to pay for our meals,” Ignis said.

“No, really! You guys saved my ass out there. But um, where is the other guy? The older guy?”

“Cor’s with Cid.”

“Oh, right! He said they were friends. Come on! Sit down! Tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you!”

They joined Prompto at the table, and they looked at the menu together. Prompto recommended the “Sizzling Humongo-Steak.” Noctis wished he had studied more about land-dweller money as he looked at the prices next to each dish. He did not understand if this place was expensive or not.

Once they decided on what Prompto recommended, the blond hopped out of his seat and ran to a dark-skinned man behind a counter. Noctis assumed he was the chef.

“He’s awfully energetic this early in the morning,” Noctis grumbled, and he slumped against the wall.

“It’s not even that early, Princess,” Gladio teased.

“Shut up, muscle-head.”

A few minutes later, Prompto came back to their table with a tray of food in hand, and someone from behind the counter had followed him with more trays. The meat sizzled on the plate as they doled out their orders, and it smelled delicious. Noctis watched Gladio and Ignis cut into their food before he tried to imitate them.

“So, how come I’ve never seen you guys around here?” Prompto asked in between bites of his half-finished meal. “We hunters kind of make it a point to know everybody.”

“We’re from a remote part of the Lucian continent,” Ignis said. “A far island near Galahd. This is our first time in the mainland.”

“Oh, sweet! I imagine it's pretty different here in Niflheim compared to back home.”

“Very different,” Noctis said, “but it’s been fun.”

Prompto bombarded them with countless questions about their home. Clarus and Cor had already drilled into their heads the way they needed to answer these questions, and Noctis found his mood sour as they told more and more lies to the blond. Their actual identities had to be a secret, he knew that, but he would have preferred to tell him all about Insomnia and the ocean, just like he wanted to learn all about land-dwellers.

“So, what sorts of things are you into?” Noctis asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

He just wanted to stop lying.

“You mean hobbies and stuff?” Prompto clarified. “Video games, mostly."

That brought Noctis’s mood back up.

“I’m afraid there’s not been much opportunity for us to play video games,” Ignis cut in.

“Whoa, really?”

“Island life can get rather busy.”

“But I’ve always wanted to play one!” Noctis blurted.

His volume startled Prompto and a few people around them. Noctis’s cheeks heated, and he sank into his seat.

“Is there anything you'd recommend?” Gladio asked. “Something Princess here can play on the road?”

Prompto told them about King’s Knight, which they could play on their phones. He talked about it as they finished their breakfast, and he gave them his friend code so they could play it together when they had the chance.

Cor interrupted their conversation, and Prompto shrank in his seat as the serious man towered over him. His eyes went wide. Noctis could sympathize. The older man had always been intimidating. Even Gladio, as large as he was, knew better than to make him angry.

“Good to see you’re doing better, Prompto,” Cor said.

“Th-thank you, sir,” the blond stammered.

“Come on, boys. We have something to do. Meet you outside in five.”

“Yes, sir!” the three younger mermen said together.

Cor nodded at all four of them, and then he took his leave.

Prompto gave a nervous chuckle.

“So, I guess, I’ll see you guys around,” he said.

“I’ll see you in King’s Knight,” Noctis said, and he held up his smartphone.

That made Prompto beam again.

“Right! See you in King’s Knight!”

The mermen left, and Cor stood near the entrance door. Noctis’s heart raced in his chest again. He wished they had not found a wrecked vehicle on their first day on the road. Learning to drive would have been much more exciting otherwise.

* * *

Cid let them borrow one of his “junkers,” as he called it, but it had enough safety features that the younger mermen were less likely to hurt themselves if they wrecked it. They sat down and took a written test first because Cid refused to give them their forged licenses before they passed it.

Noctis was glad that Ignis had pressured him to read the driver’s manual because the test was cake, way easier than he had expected it to be.

The actual driving education course was not as easy. Even with Ignis taking the wheel first, it was daunting getting a hold of the controls. After all of them took a turn behind the wheel, Cor let them take a break, and they had to get up early in the morning—an unpleasant task for Noctis—to continue their lessons.

Ignis, who was a true jack of all trades, took to driving well enough to make Cor agree to show them their most important task: meeting Noctis’s ancestors. It was part of his pilgrimage to look for the tombs of past Lucis Caelums back when they had been land-dwellers, and that had been a couple millennia ago.

Noctis wondered what those tombs looked like after so long.

“Ya kids take care of this old girl, ya hear?” Cid commanded as the merman prepared to depart.

“We will, sir,” Noctis assured him, and he stiffened when the old man looked from the Regalia to glare at him.

He did not understand how a man so old and small could look so scary.

“Ya’ll come back here when the old girl’s givin’ ya trouble,” Cindy drawled as she waved at them.

“We would trust no one else with her,” Ignis told her, nodding before he slid into the front seat of the car.

After promising to come back soon, Cor climbed into the front passenger seat to supervise the new driver, leaving Noctis and Gladio to climb into the back again. Because he was less excited to drive the Regalia now, Noctis would not complain about it.

Cor directed them North, where there was a small hunter’s community called Prairie Outpost. The hunters had set it up at the entrance of an old battleground. The battle had happened while Regis and his retinue had been exploring the lands, and they had unearthed one of the Lucis Caelum tombs after a few explosions.

They had not gotten to take part in the battle, which was for the best. Noctis wanted nothing to do with warring if he could help it, and he hated to think what might have happened if they had been caught in the middle of a confrontation between nations. He might not have had the chance to be born.

Cor complimented Ignis’s parking skills as they pulled into a parking spot.

Prairie Outpost was livelier than Hammerhead had been. Hunters laughed with each other, and many of them were sparring to test out their weapons. Some of them had partaken in too much drink as they stumbled about, and some complained of being “hungover,” which Cor defined for them as he guided them out of the settlement.

As they reached a narrow passageway, all the sounds of the Outpost disappeared, leaving them in eerie silence. The sounds of feet crunching beneath sand was the only sound.

Chickatrice flew at them, breaking up the monotony of their long journey. Ignis threw his daggers to take out half of them, and Noctis lobbed a Fire spell at them to take care of the rest. They were more annoying than the giant crabs and scary dogs had been, but otherwise, they had served no challenge to them.

When they left the narrow passage, they entered a vast field full of crumpled buildings and rusted tanks. Cor had explained the battle had been between Niflheim and Tenebrae, and Noctis assumed there were tanks from both countries, but he had not studied military history much before his pilgrimage.

“Keep an eye out for coeurls,” Cor warned, and he slowed his pace as he looked around them. “They like to settle in this area.”

Noctis had learned all about coeurls. He wanted to see one, but they also sounded nasty to fight. His father had told him a story about fighting them, and they had injured him and his retinue a few times. They reached the first tomb without coming across any beasts, and when he saw it, Noctis felt a tickle in the back of his head as a new presence connected to his.

The tomb was a large white dome with a section cut out to allow for an entrance. Despite being thousands of years old, the stone walls looked amazing. There was not a single sign of aging other than dirt caked into the crevices. Their ancestors must have made it out of the same magic-imbued stone they had made Insomnia out of.

“The Tomb of the Wise,” Cor announced as he walked up the steps. “He was famous for building a massive wall around the capital city, not that it did much good a few hundred years later.”

The presence in the back of Noctis’s mind grew stronger, and it urged him to enter the tomb, to claim his birthright. It did it through emotions, using no words, and it was strange, so _alien_ a feeling that part of him wanted to turn around and take his chances against the coeurls.

Cor pulled a key from his pocket, and he unlocked the tomb’s entrance. The ancient doors made a grating sound as he pushed them open, revealing a stone man lying on a stone slab. He turned to Noctis, and he motioned toward the stone sarcophagus in the middle of the tomb.

“You first, Your Highness,” Cor said.

Noctis nodded. He straightened his back, and he slipped past Cor and into the tomb. It was dark inside, which was no surprise, but he could make out statues of men in ancient armor and murals along the walls. The murals told the story of the past king’s achievements. Lucians had no such tombs now because they hid themselves underwater, and Noctis thought he would have hated to be buried in such an extravagant place.

Ignis made a small intake of breath as he stepped into the tomb. When Noctis turned to look at them, he caught Gladio looking around them slack-jawed. Cor looked at it with fondness, likely remembering his travels with his friends thirty years ago.

Noctis drew his attention back to the sarcophagus. That alien feeling in his head had grown stronger. He drew in a deep breath, and he closed his eyes as he released it with a _whoosh, easing the tightness he had not realized had settled into his chest._

_Noctis approached the stone man, and he stretched out his arm to touch it. Before his fingers brushed against it, blue light exploded from the center of the stone man’s chest and a sword made of blue light rose from the sarcophagus. The prince watched it with awe, but as it rotated so the tip pointed toward him, cold fear shivered up his spine. He took a step behind him out of surprise, and he gasped as the blade plunged into his chest._

_Noctis flinched, expecting pain, but there was only an intense warmth as the blade exploded again. For a moment, it swirled around him with the sound of tinkling glass. The alien presence fled his mind, leaving behind a new feeling. It was a second Armiger, he realized, a smaller one meant only for him. He reached into it, and he pulled out the Sword of the Wise in its corporeal form._

_Pride swelled in the prince’s chest as he realized he had gotten his first Royal Arms._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s so weird telling this part of the story without Prompto there because they’re not friends yet.
> 
> And I should explain that Niflheim’s territories extend pretty far in this world because the Lucians were taken underwater to protect the Crystal, and it had the chance to expand its borders pretty far.
> 
> The second part has yet to be decided. I’ll try getting the next few chapters done quickly because I don’t want to have to worry too much about keeping up my schedule during October. I’m going to be busy working on too many projects at once during October.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Comments, whether criticism or praise, and kudos are deeply appreciated and highly encouraging.


	8. Rescued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, I had this finished last week. I just needed to edit it and add more stuff here and there, but then, I got sick (not with COVID, I promise). It had already been a stressful couple of weeks, so I was kind of glad to take a week off, honestly, even if I felt horribly guilty for it the whole time.
> 
> I don’t go into the Keycatrich Trench dungeon with much detail, which I would personally find disappointing if I were a reader instead of the writer of this fic because Cor is coming with them instead of Prompto, but honestly, I’ve read quite a few fics where they go through that dungeon. Please forgive me for feeling a bit burnt out on it.

Cor took them through Keycatrich Trench. He stood back while they fought off spiders bigger than their heads—Noctis did _not_ let out ear-piercing wails when he saw the ugly things, no matter what Gladio said—stepping in only when there were too many for the younger mermen to take. At the end of the abandoned shelter, there was a second Royal Tomb, the Tomb of the Conqueror, and they returned to the Prairie Outpost with an ancient battle axe in Noctis’s Armiger.

They rented a caravan together, and Noctis sat at the inside kitchen table, watching his two new weapons swirling around him. That presence he had felt at the Royal Tombs lingered at the back of his mind, eager to be useful to him. Noctis wondered if it would distract him when he used them in battle.

“Now that you know what to do,” Cor said, standing from the couch, “I’m going back to Hammerhead. If you need anything, remember to call me.”

“Yes, sir,” Noctis said as he withdrew the Royal Arms, and he stood.

“Do you have questions for me before I leave?”

The three younger mermen looked at each other. Noctis shrugged his shoulders.

“You already gave us a map,” Noctis said, “and I think we know what to look out for now. Those were just about the only questions I had.”

The prince looked at the other two in his retinue. Gladio seemed satisfied, but Ignis’s brow wrinkled as he thought.

“Marshal, I noticed our bond with Noctis silences whenever he connects to his Royal Arms,” Ignis said. “Is that how it’s supposed to be?”

Noctis frowned, having not realized that had happened. He had felt it during his fight with Bismarck, but this time, he had been too focused on the strange voice in his head to notice any changes in his bond.

Cor grimaced. He crossed his arms over his chest, and he nodded.

“It used to happen with Regis, too,” he said. “It’s scary at first, but you’ll get used to it.”

“Do you know why it happens?”

“The same reason it happened during Noctis’s fight with Bismarck. The Lucis Caelums are the Hexathon’s chosen conduit for their magic, and whenever they speak to him in his head, they shut everyone else out. It’s the same for his ancestors. Every time you have to deal with the Gods, it’ll be Noctis on his own every time.”

“I see.”

Noctis hated the uncertain look on the normally unflappable Ignis’s face. The two of them had been close since before the prince could remember, and there was this one thing they could not share with each other. He could imagine how much anxiety that must give his advisor.

“Anything else you kids need to know?” Cor asked, jerking them out of their heads.

“That’s all I have for now, Marshal,” Ignis said.

“All right. Remember to call me if you need anything.”

“Do you need a ride to Hammerhead?” Gladio asked.

“I have that taken care of,” Cor assured him. “Good luck on your journey, Your Highness, Gladiolus, Ignis."

Cor gave Noctis a slight bow, which would always be strange coming from one of the strongest men on Eos, and then he left the three younger mermen alone in the caravan. They looked out a window and watched him until he disappeared down a turn in the road. Tension settled in Noctis’s body. Cor had left Noctis and his retinue to their own devices for the first time in his life.

Gladio plopped himself onto the couch Cor had vacated, and he sighed.

“What are we doing next?” he asked.

Noctis sat at the kitchen table again, and he propped his elbow on the table and his head against his fist.

“We have to go after the Royal Arms,” he said.

“We could go to the Tombs of the Just and the Tall next,” Ignis suggested as he summoned Cor’s map from the Armiger. “The Marshal said they were easy to get to, and it would be nice to have three Royal Arms before we go into areas with more troublesome beasts.”

“We should probably take on a few hunts first,” Gladio added, “and save up some gil. It’d be nice to get some new weapons, too.”

“So take a few nearby hunts today,” Noctis decided, “maybe a few more on the way to the next Tomb tomorrow. Sounds like a plan.”

Gladio and Ignis both agreed to it, and they prepared to find someone who could give them a list of hunts.

* * *

Noctis envied Ignis’s confidence behind the wheel of the Regalia as they drove to the southern Duscae region, which was lush and wet, the complete opposite of the desert in Leide. They passed so many terrifying beasts as they drove, and Ignis kept driving like it was normal, like there was no reason to be afraid. Animals even crossed the road in some places, and he stopped without getting anyone hurt. It had only been two days, and he already drove as well as someone with a few months-worth of training.

Ignis was a genius. He proved it to Noctis all the time, and the prince envied him for that, too.

They reached the place they had punched into the digital navigator in the dashboard, and Ignis parked the Regalia along the side of the road. A forest surrounded the road on both sides, but a faint voice in the back of Noctis’s mind helped them find the correct path to the Royal Tomb, growing louder as he moved in the correct direction. There was something off about it, this time, like there was a hint of panic in its tone, but it was only his third Tomb. He did not know how different each of them would be.

“Why are we letting Princess lead the way?” Gladio asked. “He’s directionally challenged.”

“I am not.”

“Yeah, and how many times have you gotten lost in the ocean since you were a kid?”

“I wasn’t lost. I was distracted.”

“Distracted, huh?”

Noctis turned to glare at his Shield for his sarcastic tone.

“I was a curious kid,” he defended himself.

“Specifically about land-dweller things,” Ignis added.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“This seems to be the correct direction.”

“Thanks, Igs.”

There was no need to mention that he would not know where to go if not for his ancestor screaming at him.

They came across a group of giant centipede bugs, or hundlegs, creepy mandibles moving as if beckoning them closer for consumption. Noctis failed to hold back high-pitched screeches as he cleaved through them, brown bug fluids flying in every direction. After they killed them, Gladio paused to laugh at him. Noctis could not help himself: bugs were already so alien-looking to him, and giant versions of them were more than he could handle.

“Shut up, musclehead!” Noctis said, glaring at his Shield.

“I can’t believe you’re scared of a little bug!” Gladio said, grinning.

“Nothing ‘little’ about those things!”

Something wet touched the top of Noctis’s head, and he flinched. He looked up at the gray sky, and he wondered when the clouds had rolled through, and it began raining. The merman prince sighed.

“Great, now we’re going to have to worry about big toads,” he grumbled.

“So your near-constant re-reading of children’s textbooks has been helpful, after all,” Ignis teased.

“One of our hunts was a gigantoad, wasn’t it?” Gladio asked.

“Yeah, but the clerk said those types of hunts are popular,” Noctis explained, “so if we come across one, we’ll probably have competition for it.”

“We haven’t had much competition for a hunt yet. That might make things interesting.”

“‘Interesting’ might be more than we want to take on,” Ignis warned. “I’ve heard hunters can be quite nasty to each other. There isn’t much regulation in the law, and some hunters take advantage of that.”

“Duly noted.”

Noctis’s bloodline made the prince’s head ache as he led the way to the Tomb. They stumbled across another group of hundlegs, and Noctis was better prepared for the way they came at him, allowing him to hold back his screeching as he dodged their clacking mandibles.

It was just after he warped into a hundleg that Noctis heard a loud _croak_.

“Noct!” Gladio called. “Look out!”

The prince landed a death blow on the hundleg’s unsightly head, and he turned in time to see a massive something right over him. He had enough time to take in the bumpy texture of its brown skin before it landed right on top of him, knocking him onto his back, and it smothered his face. A lukewarm liquid splashed over him, and he assumed it was the creature’s blood— _hoped_ it was its blood.

It smelled like a pile of rotting garbage.

“Noctis!” came Ignis’s muffled cry.

There was not enough room to summon a weapon, and the gigantoad had knocked his sword from his hand.nNoctis recalled they were weak to ice, but it was a bad idea to launch a blizzaga spell while he was under it. That would just freeze it in place.

Its croak was even more terrifying while sitting on top of him, vibrating all throughout his weakening body. His chest ached, and he could only take in shallow breaths.

Loud bangs startled Noctis, making the squeeze on his body even tighter. With a loud moan, the gigantoad finally leaped off Noctis, and the prince rolled onto his side to cough air into his lungs. Ignis rushed to him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Noctis, are you all right?” his adviser asked.

“Yeah, thing just caught me by surprise.”

Noctis was mortified when he noticed a second gigantoad had joined the fray.

More of those loud bangs sounded off, and Noctis looked around for the source. He found Prompto standing a few feet away, and he had a gun in his hand. The blond was focused enough on the gigantoads that Noctis felt safe summoning a greatsword, and he joined the fight, swinging his massive blade into the swelling belly of the nearest beast.

When the giant toad rolled onto its side, letting out one last cry of pain, Noctis ran to the next one, and with all four people concentrating their efforts on the one creature, it was easier and faster to take it down. They all breathed sighs of relief.

“Oh. Em. GEE! You guys are awesome!” Prompto shouted.

The mermen turned to the blond as he rushed to their sides. He had a wide grin on his face.

“I’ve never seen people fight like that before!” he continued.

Noctis did not bring up that he had seen them fight before and with magic, but they could forgive him for forgetting. The prince gave him a small smile as he planted his greatsword into the ground. He leaned against the weapon as he caught his breath.

“Thanks,” he said. “And thanks for helping us out.”

“I don’t think you needed me, but I am happy to make things go a little faster. Especially with gigantoads. Those things are a nightmare.”

“Strange coincidence seeing you out here,” Ignis said.

“Yeah, took on a hundleg hunt, and I heard you guys calling for each other. I figured I could lend a hand.”

“We’ll certainly make sure you’re compensated for your efforts.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that.”

“You lost much of your ammunition helping us. The least we could do is pay you back for it.”

Prompto gave an awkward laugh, and he rubbed the back of his neck. Noctis was grateful the guy seemed just as awkward around people as he did. He hated how much easier it was for Gladio and Ignis to speak to people.

“Noct and I have something we need to check out,” Gladio said. “Why don’t you two start gutting these. We’ll be right back to help you.”

“Of course,” Ignis said, but he grimaced at the dead gigantoads.

“Ah, sure, I can help you pick out the best parts,” Prompto said.

Gladio hefted his greatsword over his shoulder, and he nudged Noctis in the shoulder.

“Let’s go, Princess, before something else comes along to kick your ass.”

“More like kick _your_ ass.”

“Uh-huh. That big toad squashed you a little too easily, Princess.”

“Whatever.”

Noctis’s face heated. He yanked his greatsword out of the ground, and he led the way to the Tomb of the Tall, where he discovered the reason behind the oddness in his ancestor’s voice: the Royal Arm was missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot it was the Tomb of the Tall that was broken into and not the Tomb of the Just, and I think I got the creatures surrounding it mixed up in my head. It’s not that important, really, but it does bother me a little. haha
> 
> The plan is to have the next chapter of this posted tomorrow, so keep a look out for that, if you like this series. I am doing it to make up for skipping out on posting anything last week.
> 
> I wish I could say that I have been hard at work on something to post something special for October. Two months ago, I had every intention of doing so, but unfortunately, productivity has been a real issue for me. It would be nice to blame it on how shitty this year has been, but I’ve struggled with it for a long time now. I’ve been trying to work on it, but developing new habits is extra hard for me for some reason.
> 
> There I go rambling again. Thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and highly motivating!


	9. Uncertainty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this both late and rather short than usual. I also didn't use a proper MerMay prompt. When I started this, I knew I would have to throw in a few of these in an attempt to make things make sense.
> 
> We'll see if it'll stay in the future, but hopefully, you enjoy it!

As soon as they were far enough away from Prompto that he could not see them, Gladio and Noctis put their greatswords back into the Armiger. The blond would have questions if they forgot to bring them out again when they came back, but it was easier to navigate through the forest without the heavy things. Noctis listened to the off voice of his ancestor. Its panic was more clear to him now.

The Tomb of the Tall looked just like the other tombs they had found at the old Imperial battlegrounds, except there was a gate around it, and as they got closer to it, Noctis noticed someone had busted the door open. Frowning, Noctis jogged to the Tomb. Chunks of stone littered the ground and the floor inside the dark tomb. He looked at the center of the Tomb. At first glance, the inside looked the same as the others, but there was no weapon sitting on top of the stone sarcophagus.

“What the hell?” Gladio said as he looked at it. “Aren’t these things supposed to be indestructible or something?”

“Yeah, it’s weird,” Noctis said, “and I don’t see a weapon.”

“Seriously?”

Noctis stepped over the debris, and he touched the stone man in the center of the Tomb. The voice remained in his head, but no ethereal weapon rose from the sarcophagus to pierce into his chest.

“Yeah, there’s nothing,” the prince confirmed aloud.

“Damn. We have to call Cor.”

“On it.”

Noctis pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket, and he tapped the second number in his contacts. Cor’s voice came through the receiver:

“Are you boys in trouble already?” he asked, no amusement in his tone.

“We went to the Tomb of the Tall,” Noctis explained, “but the door was busted open.”

“Busted?”

“Yeah, and the Tall is _panicking_ in my head. It’s giving me a headache.”

“Noctis, only magic can break open the Tombs without the key. Hell, the key has a bit of magic itself.”

“It’s definitely broken. The Royal Arm isn’t here, Marshal. Someone took it.”

Cor let out a string of curses Noctis was sure he had never heard come out of the man before. Noctis looked at Gladio, whose eyebrows pinched together as he looked around them, and he gave his Shield a concerned look. The larger merman mirrored it.

“I’ll look into it,” he said, and he ended the call.

Noctis sighed as he pocketed his phone.

“Does he know anything?” Gladio asked.

“All he said was he’ll look into it.”

“Shit. Is that ancestor of yours telling you anything?”

“Nope. Just pure panic.”

“Real helpful of you, buddy,” Gladio said to the stone sarcophagus. “Let’s get back to Iggy and Prompto, then.”

Noctis nodded. He took one more look around the Tomb, and he sighed when he still saw nothing helpful to them. Gladio left the Tomb first, and Noctis followed behind him. When they could hear Prompto talking to Ignis, they summoned their weapons again—Gladio yelled at him when he summoned a regular sword instead of his greatsword—and they found the two blonds cutting open the second gigantoad.

The stench from those things was foul, like a massive poop pile. Noctis hid his nose behind his free hand.

“Hey, we’re back guys,” he called, voice strained.

Ignis stepped out from behind the giant toad, covered in blood, and he looked relieved to see Noctis approaching them.

“Did everything go all right?” he asked.

Noctis grimaced in answer, and Ignis frowned.

“Hey, blondie,” Gladio called, “are you done showing Iggy stuff? I want to show you the car.”

“Ah, yeah, I told him all the best parts,” Prompto said. “You don’t have to give me a ride or anything. I already got one lined up.”

“Cid said something about you liking to tinker with stuff, so I thought you’d like to check out an antique.”

Prompto’s eyebrows flew to his forehead. He turned to Ignis and Noctis, who just shrugged, knowing Gladio was just giving them a chance to talk without the land-dweller to overhear them.

“Ah, okay, sure!” Prompto called as he followed Gladio through the woods.

Noctis told Ignis about the broken door of the Tomb and the missing Royal Arm.

“So, we can assume that something magical was here, someone who isn’t you or your father.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know anyone else who could have broken into it. There were the Nox Fleurets, but they died out when Insomnia was founded.”

“That’s what we were taught, anyway.”

Noctis drew his eyebrows together as he took in the meaning in Ignis’s words. He had been studying both Lucian and land-dweller history for as long as he could remember, but there was an endless amount of information that could have been lost through time. It was not so far-fetched to think there was something important that no one knew about, or that no one had known was important.

“Perhaps the Marshal will find something that will help us sort this out,” Ignis sighed. “Why don’t you help me load body parts into the Armiger, now Prompto isn’t here?”

Noctis sighed, but he nodded. He followed Ignis around the forest to collect their spoils.

* * *

Noctis was relieved when he could put away his greatsword into the Armiger, pretending to tuck it away into the trunk of the Regalia, which definitely did not have enough space for the massive things, but Prompto said nothing about it, if he had noticed that. The blond gave them a nervous smile as he looked outside the car.

“Is the Regalia to your liking?” Ignis asked.

“Yeah, she’s beautiful,” Prompto said, face brightening. “It’s rare to see an antique car like this, especially with Hunters, man. We definitely don’t get paid enough to get fancy cars like this. Noctis, Gladio said this was your dad’s?”

“Yeah, he gave it to me for my birthday,” Noctis said.

“Sweet, dude.”

“Noctis, what are we doing next?” Ignis asked.

The merman prince placed his hands on his hips as he thought.

“We’ve taken on a lot of hunts already,” he said, “so I think we’re due for a break. Where’s the closest town again?”

“Dude, let’s go to Wiz’s Chocobo Post!” Prompto exclaimed, startling everyone with the sudden suggestion.

Ignis pulled out his map from the Armiger, angling himself so Prompto could not see it pop out from nowhere.

“There’s Wiz’s Chocobo Post,” Prompto suggested. “It’s a great place to wind down for a while.”

“Chocobo Post?” Noctis repeated.

The blond gasped, giving them a look of horror.

“ _Please_ don’t tell me you’ve never heard of a Chocobo!”

“We have heard of them,” Ignis said, chuckling at the blond’s enthusiasm. “We’ve merely never experienced them for ourselves.”

“Wha—So, you’ve never ridden a chocobo?”

“I’m afraid not too many of them exist where we come from.”

“Dudes, you _have_ to go! Chocobos are the cutest things on Eos!”

Noctis smirked.

“All right. Why not?”

Prompto cheered. They all climbed into the Regalia, and Prompto took the front passenger, or “shotgun,” as he called it, to help guide Ignis to their destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the next prompt will be "Best Buddy," but it could also be "outcast." I haven't made up my mind yet.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated and highly motivating!
> 
> I would also like to tell you that I am participating in Whumptober again this year, but it will all be original works. It would still be nice if you could check them! I made a pseudonym (my real name, heh), and [a series for them](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949482). They'll each be less than 300 words to avoid overwhelming myself.


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